Do You Believe In Astrology? I Don’t. I DO! I SO DO!

Is astrology real? Probably not but ugh, kill me. My friend’s astronomy professor was adamant about his disdain for astrology. “The stars aren’t even aligned that way! None of it makes sense!” He’s correct. How can there be any innate truth to astrology when we’re merely reading into constellations, which are the man made process of categorizing and organizing the world around us. There’s nothing scientific about astrology. I can’t rationalize or justify it, yet when I read my horoscope, I am like: that sounds like me.

Most people who don’t believe in horoscopes will say that they’re just written as general as possible, you can read any horoscope and feel like it is speaking to you. That’s simply not true. I mean, how is it that I often know people’s zodiac signs before I’ve asked. I know a Cancer, a Sagittarius, a Leo, a Gemini (love me some Geminis) or a fellow Libra when I meet one. Even as I type that I know I sound like a crazy person.

I am not spiritual at all. However, I do respect those who want to have faith in something beyond themselves. While I am wary of organized religion, I can’t help but crack a genuine smile when I see how nearby churches have formed communities where children can play in a safe place or where neighbors can freely mix and mingle. Most of all, I know these ideas, that there is larger order to the universe, bring many people a lot of comfort and help them get through very rough times.

I guess for me, Astrology is my Higher Power. I sound very stupid to a lot of people right now. But hey, I’m a Libra and Libras are “easily influenced.” I used to hate that part of my astrological profile, since more than anything I’ve always marched to beat of my own drummer. Then I realized what it meant is that I am not necessarily influenced by sheep mentality, so much as the cacophonic sound of a car alarm going off three blocks away that can both irritate and distract me, while it phases no one else. Or that reading something negative in my horoscope can frame my perspective or attitude for the day. Or that if I sense that someone in the room is sad and uncomfortable, I’ll start to feel that way too.

I don’t believe horoscopes are rea but it’s nice to have some kind of rationalization for why things are going bad. My final two years of college were the most stressful, depressing, plain difficult time in my life, so when famous astrologist Susan Miller said Saturn would be in Libra for two years prompting trials and tribulations to teach me life lessons, I thought, oh, there’s a reason why things are so tough but they’ll eventually get better.

When Susan said that the only way to survive Saturn in Libra was to change my approach and outlook on life because old methods and habits would not work, I did that. The results were positive. There may have been no astrological reason for that because I think you tend to have positive results when you step out of your comfort zone but it did prompt me to do it.

During that time of Saturn, I was studying abroad in London and having a tough time. I had a physical reaction to the water there and didn’t quite realize it was the reason why my hair was breaking off, why I had gone underweight and my skin was breaking out. By the end, I just wanted to get home and see my family for Christmas. Of course the day I was to travel home Mercury was in retrograde. When Mercury retrogrades (and it is right now) travel goes awry, there are miscommunications, electronics break and if you get a haircut you will hate it.

The day I was to go home it snowed, so Heathrow airport, an airport that literally has millions of people pass through a day, completely shut down. I remember flight attendants fleeing the building and refusing to acknowledge confused passengers. I remember sitting in a plane for 8 hours and thinking, finally, until they told us to GTFO of it and sent us on our merry way.Of course there was only 1 phone number for Virgin Airlines and it was impossible to get through. Of course the airpot was closed for days. Of course I had to use the little money left in my bank account (I was lucky to go abroad on need-based scholarships) and had to buy another plane ticket that was more expensive than my roundtrip ticket to the UK. I was stranded for 7 days. Mercury was in retrograde and Saturn was mocking me from the sidelines. Instead of getting bitter and crying, “Why me?” I thought, well Susan Miller said it would be this way and dealt with it.

However in sixth grade, Marilyn read in her horoscope that a close friend would betray her so she stopped talking to Julia, her best friend, for years. That’s stupid. I’ve read that friends would change their attitude toward me and then felt self-conscious around them for no reason. Astrology is a great excuse for what’s happening around you but it is in no way instructive. Plus, it’s not real, so whatever.